Zampieri & Antram

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

ZAMPIERI & ANTRAM [2004] FMCAfam 128

CHILD SUPPORT – Application to set aside Child Support Agreement – where applicant claimed the agreement was obtained by fraud – where no particulars provided of alleged fraud or of grounds for otherwise departing from a longstanding agreement – where respondent sought summary dismissal – where applicant sought an adjournment to comply with authorities.

Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 (Cth), s.117

Bryant (1996) FLC 92-690
G v G [2004] FMCAfam 9
Ross v McDermott 98 FLC 98-003

Applicant: PAOLO ZAMPIERI

Respondent: DALE LOUISE ANTRAM

File No: PAM 851 of 2003

Delivered on: 10 March 2004

Delivered at: Parramatta

Hearing date: 10 March 2004

Judgment of: Raphael FM

REPRESENTATION

Counsel for the Applicant: Mr Cairns

Solicitors for the Applicant: Rita Hanna & Associates

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr Foster

Solicitors for the Respondent: Beilby Poulden Costello

ORDERS

(1)Application dismissed.

(2)Applicant to pay respondent's costs to be taxed if not agreed in accordance with the Family Court Rules.

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES
COURT OF AUSTRALIA AT
PARRAMATTA

PAM 851 of 2003

PAOLO ZAMPIERI

Applicant

And

DALE LOUISE ANTRAM

Respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

1. These proceedings were commenced by way of an application filed on 26 February 2003.  At that time the applicant sought three orders.  First was that the child support payments be made directly through the Child Support Agency.  The second was that the child support agreement made on 17 July 1999 be reviewed and the third, that any interest payable on arrears be waived. 

2. The applicant filed an affidavit which had been sworn on 25 February.  The affidavit had ten short paragraphs, one of them indicated that his taxable income for the year ended 30 June 2002 was $36,000.  The affidavit, in the manner in which it is drawn, gives some indication of the quality of assistance that was being given to the applicant.  In paragraph 4 it refers to the applicant's taxable income for the year ending 30 June 2002 as being $36,336. This is supported by an exhibit which is a notice of assessment from the Deputy Commissioner.  The figure given in the notice of assessment is not $36,336 but $26,336. 

3. The affidavit refers to a child support agreement which the applicant says purports to contain his signature.  He then states in paragraph eight of the affidavit that:

   I do not recall having signed said document in addition to which I am unable to read or write.....I do not recall having received an explanation as to the cause or effect of any document with respect to child support payments. 

4. At paragraph 10 the deponent relates that he is now living in a de facto relationship and is responsible for the financial support of his partner and her son.  There is then a deposition paragraph in the following form:

   Sworn by the deponent, Paolo Zampieri being unable to read or write, Rita Hanna read this affidavit in the presence of Nicole Desira and the deponent new [sic] and approved its contents.…